WCPSS Celebrates National Early College High School Week
March 17, 2011 - More than 200 Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) students are enrolled in the Wake Early College of Health and Science, and that number will increase with the opening of the Wake NC State University STEM Early College in the fall.The two WCPSS Early College high schools are among the more than 70 Early Colleges in North Carolina. These schools account for nearly one-third of the early college programs nationwide.
Early College high schools are being celebrated the week of March 20-26 as part of Early College High School Week 2011.
Wake Early College of Health and Science
Wake Early College of Health and Sciences is a partnership between Wake Technical Community College, WakeMed Health and Hospitals, and WCPSS. Wake Early College students attend classes in their first years at Wake Tech’s Health Sciences campus adjacent to WakeMed Hospital; in their final years they may take also courses at Wake Tech’s Northern campus.
Wake Early College Principal Teresa Pierrie says the school sets a different frame for students about the expectations of a high school in an early college program.
“As freshmen, students begin accruing not only their high school transcript, but also their first college transcript,” said Pierrie. “They understand that this transcript follows them wherever they go after Wake Early College.”
The partnership with WakeMed provides early college students the opportunity to volunteer and intern in an actual health sciences environment, gaining important career development experiences. Through Wake Technical Community College, the early College students have the opportunity to earn two years of college credit, an important financial benefit to families and a head start on a four year degree.
Wake NC State University STEM Early College
The new STEM Early College, a partnership of WCPSS and NC State, will open for the first time this fall with 55 ninth-graders. This new five-year high school program will focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) and provide students a high school degree and up to two years of college credit.
STEM Early College Principal Rob Matheson says STEM instruction will be integrated within studies around five of the Grand Challenges of Engineering.
"Examples of the Grand Challenges would be making solar energy economical or having access to clean water,” said Matheson. “We will ask the students essential questions related to the Grand Challenges. Let the students determine what they know and what they don’t know, and investigate in their math, science and engineering classrooms. These Grand Challenges will be used as the theme in all the courses that we teach.”
Students will also be challenged to consider the skills, knowledge and applications needed to solve these issues. For example, they will also be asked to look at the social, political and economic impacts of solutions they develop.
STEM Early College students will be able to complete their high school studies and take college courses that may prepare them for a degree and a career in science, technology, engineering or math.
Impact of Early College Programs
Early college high schools are based on the concept that academic challenge—not remediation—will improve both high school and college graduation rates among young people who are least likely to attend college and for whom society often has low aspirations for academic achievement.
The early college high schools open college access to students who might otherwise stop short of college or even high school graduation. The schools enable students to earn a high school diploma and an associate's degree or two years of transferable college credit - tuition free - within four or five years.
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